Air outlet grille



April 24, 1952 R. L. BRUGLER 3,030,872

AIR OUTLET GRILLE Filed April 20, 1959 3 Sheets$heet 1 f 1 42 4 w i 4% INVENTOR. V Zz-Zarai ,Frzzy/ex AIR OUTLET GRILLE Filed April 20, 1959 :5 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTO Zia/Q7143 BY W M M ATTORNEYS.

April 24, 1962 R. L. BRUGLER AIR OUTLET GRILLE 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed April 20, 1959 3,030,872 AIR OUTLET GRILLE Richard L. Brugler, Trotwood, Ohio, assignor to Chrysler Corporation, Highland Park, Mich, a corporation of Delaware Filed Apr. 20, 1959, Ser. No. 807,492 3 Claims. (Cl. 98-40) This invention relates to an air outlet grille which is particularly adapted for use in conjunction with room air conditioners.

It is common practice in the air conditioning industry to provide a heat exchange coil such as an evaporator coil that has a generally rectangular front face through which air is propelled by a fan or a blower. It is also common to provide a manually operable air directing means in combination therewith so that the user may direct the air in one or more directions to suit his taste and needs. Rotary vaned devices have frequently been employed for this latter purpose and unfortunately the geometric differences between such rotary devices and the rectangular evaporator coil with which they are associated tends to leave the corners of the evaporator coil either dead with no air passing through them or at least with an uncontrolled or restricted air flow.

It is a principal object of this invention to provide means to usefully employ air discharged through portions of the rectangular evaporator coil that do not lie in registry with a rotary air directing means.

It is also an object of the invention to direct air issuing from the above mentioned portions on paths converging toward the axis of an adjustable primary air aperture.

It is a further object of the invention to provide a novel varied control assembly in which vanes are ganged in left and right groups for group adjustment of the vanes .on one side of a center line of the vane assembly and separate adjustment as a group of vanes on the other side of the centerline of the vaned assembly.

Referring to the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a front elevational view of a window mounted room air conditioner incorporating my invention;

FIG. 2 is a plan view, partly in section, of the air conditioner with the top cover thereof removed;

FIG. 3 is a vertical section taken on the line 33 of FIG. 2 illustrating my air outlet grille as viewed from the upstream side thereof; and

FIGS. 4, and 6 are sectional views taken on the lines 4-4, 5-5 and-66 of FIG. 2.

The air conditioner of FIGS. 1 and 2 is of conventional construction except that it incorporates my novel air outlet grille. It is illustrated particularly to orient the grille in a typical application. The air conditioner includes a perforated ornamental grille 10 which extends over substantially the entire front wall of the air conditioner and suitable controls 12, 14 and 16.

A suitable compressor 18, condenser and fan 22 are mounted in the air conditioner in a rear compartment designated by the numeral 24 and defined by a partition 26 which extends laterally across the air conditioner. The compartment 24 is vented to the outside through apertures 30 and 32 which serve to reject heat from the air conditioning unit to the outside atmosphere in accordance with conventional practice.

An evaporator compartment 34 exists between the partition 26 and the perforated grille 10 and a rectangular evaporator 36 and -a fan 38 are mounted in compartment 34. Air is drawn in by the fan 38 through the left side (in FIGS. 1 and 2) of the perforated grille 10 and discharged through the evaporator coil '36 as illustrated in FIG. 2. The evaporator preferably has a flat frontal face 40 and a grille structure 42 overlies this face 40'.

The grille structure 42 is disposed downstream of the nited fitates Patent evaporator coil 36 and includes a relatively large first or primary aperture 44 which is preferably circular in contour and aligned with a major portion of the flat frontal face 40 of evaporator coil 36. Aperture 44 is adapted to accommodate the passage of a generally cylindrical column of air. A secondary aperture 46 of generally triangular contour is formed in each corner of the grille structure 42 so that substantially the entire rectangular surface of the evaporator frontal face 40 may be penetrated by air driven by fan 38. The secondary apertures 46 are each aligned with a portion or area of the evaporator coil face 40 and the portion of the grille structure 42 associated with each secondary aperture 46 is formed so that a plurality of stationary vanes 48 extend across the aperture. The vanes 48 are inclined so that air penetrating an aperture 46 is directed on a path which converges with respect to the axis of the first or primary aperture 44. Thus the generally cylindrical column of air discharged from the first or primary aperture 44 is confined by the converging plurality of airstreams issuing from the secondary apertures 46. This provides a confined conical airstream acting as a shield around the generally cylindrical column of air.

A vane assembly 50 is assembled with the primary aperture 44 and includes a supporting frame structure 52 which is retained for rotary movement in grille structure 42 by means of a depending flange 54 formed on grille structure 42 and a plurality of cooperating lugs 56. The supporting frame structure 52 includes a central fixed vane 53 and a central structure,57 carrying a knob 58 for manual manipulation. The entire vane assembly 50 may thus be rotated about its axis to any desired position by manual rotation of knob 58. The knob 5-8 preferably penetrates the perforated decorative grille 10 for convenient grasping by the operator.

The vane assembly 50 further includes a plurality of parallel movable vanes 60, 62, 64, 66, 70, 72, 74 and 76. Each of the vanes 60 through 76 carries a pin 78 on each end and the pins 78 are pivotally mounted in the supporting frame structure 52 to accommodate pivotal movement of the vane relative to the supporting frame structure 52.

The vanes 60, 62, 64 and 66 which are on one side of the center vane 53 of the supporting frame structure 52 are connected together for ganged movement or movement in unison. Similarly the vanes 70, 72, 74 and 76 are connected together for movement as a gang or in unison. As illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 4 the means for effecting such connections consists of a transverse bar 80 which is pivotally connected to the rear of vanes 60, 62, 64 and 66 and a similar transverse bar 82 which is connected to vanes 70, 72, 74 and 76. The bars 80 and 82 are respectively provided with inner laterally extending fingers 84 and 86 which penetrate the front of the air conditioning unit. The knob 58 is provided with a pair of elongated openings 88 and 90 and the central structure 57 of frame structure 52 is provided with a similar pair of elongated openings 91 and 93 which are aligned with openings 88 and 90. The openings 91 and 93 are visible in FIGURES 3 and 5 of the drawings. The aligned openings 91 and 88 are penetrated by finger 84 and the aligned openings 93 and 90 are penetrated by finger 86 with lateral movement of fingers 84 and 86 accommodated, The fingers 84 and '86, respectively, are provided with finger tabs and 87 to facilitate their manipulation by the operator. It will thus be seen that the operator can selectively move finger 84 or 86 to effect a pivoting of the vanes attached to the corresponding transverse bar 80 or 82 to thereby impart a lateral component to the path which half of the air being discharged through primary aperture 44 will follow.

Even when the air discharged through primary aperture 44 has a lateral component imparted to its path by a previous positioning of fingers 84 or 86 the air emitted from secondary apertures 46 will influence the movement of the primary air. At least some of the air issuing from the secondary apertures, in any position of the vanes 60 through 76, will tend to confine the airstream issuing from the primary aperture 44 and an increase in room cooler efficiency will be achieved due to the useful employment of the entire area of the frontal face of the rectangular evaporator. This increased efiiciency is occasioned by the passage of air throughout the entire surface area of the evaporator coil.

I claim:

1. In an air conditioning device having a heat exchange coil provided with a frontal face and air propelling means mounted upstream of said coil and adapted to discharge air through said coil in a direction normal to said face; a grille structure overlying said coil frontal face and disposed downstream of said coil for controlling the direction of travel of air discharged through said coil by said air propelling means, said grille structure including a first aperture aligned with a major portion of the above mentioned coil frontal face and further including a plurality of secondary apertures disposed at spaced intervals around the periphery of the above mentioned first aperture and aligned with other portions of said coil frontal face, said grille structure further including air deflecting means associated with the above mentioned secondary apertures to direct air issuing therefrom on a converging course with respect to the axis of the above mentioned first aperture and a vane assembly rotatably mounted in said grille structure in registry with the above mentioned first aperture, said vane assembly comprising a supporting frame structure and a plurality of vanes arranged in parallel relationship relative to each other, each of said vanes being pivotally mounted at its ends on said supporting frame structure, first means joining the vanes on one side of a line paralleling said vanes and passing through the center of said frame structure for movement of said vanes as a gang and second means joining the vanes on the other side of the above mentioned center line for movement as another gang independent of the first mentioned gang, a knob carried by said supporting frame structure to accommodate manual adjustment of the rotary position of said vane assembly and first and second individually movable tabs respectively supported by and operatively connected to said first and second means for individual manual adjustment of said gangs.

2. In an air conditioning device having a heat exchange coil provided with a frontal face and air propelling means mounted upstream of said coil and adapted to discharge air through said coil in a direction normal to said face; a grille structure overlying said flat face and disposed downstream of said coil for controlling the direction of travel of air discharged through said coil by said air propelling means, said grille structure including a vane assembly comprising a supporting frame structure and a plurality of vanes arranged in parallel relationship relative to each other, each of said vanes being pivotally mounted on said supporting frame structure, first means joining the vanes on one side of a line paralleling said vanes and passing through the center of said frame structure for movement of said vanes as a gang and second means joining the vanes on the other side of the above mentioned center line for movement as another gang independent of the first mentioned gang, means supporting said vane assembly for rotary movement relative to said grille structure, manually operable means carried by said supporting frame structure to accommodate manual adjustment of the rotary position of said vane assembly and first and second individually movable control elements respectively supported by and operatively connected to said first and second means for individual manual adjustment of said gangs.

3. In an air conditioning device having a heat exchange coil provided with a frontal face and air propelling means mounted upstream of said coil and adapted to discharge air through said coil in a direction normal to said face; a grille structure overlying said flat face and disposed downstream of said coil for controlling the direction of travel of air discharged through said coil by said air propelling means, said grille structure including a vane assembly comprising a supporting frame structure and a plurality of vanes arranged in parallel relationship relative to each other, each of said vanes being pivotally mounted on said supporting frame structure, first means joining the vanes on one side of a line paralleling said vanes and passing through the center of said frame structure for movement of said vanes as a gang and second means joining the vanes on the other side of the above mentioned center line for movement as another gang independent of the first mentioned gang, means supporting said vane assembly for rotary movement relative to said grille structure, a knob secured to said supporting frame structure to accommodate manual adjustment of the rotary position of said vane assembly, said knob being provided with a pair of elongated slots respectively penetrated by said first and second means for individual manual adjustment of said gangs induced by movement of said first alnd second means in their associated above-mentioned s ots.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,178,894 Morgan Nov. 7, 1939 2,472,748 Labus June 7, 1949 2,784,659 De Roo et al. Mar. 12, 1957 2,786,407 Sarles et al Mar. 26, 1957 2,824,429 Zucker Feb. 25, 1958 2,853,935 Crowle et a1 Sept. 30, 1958 2,881,689 Stevens Apr. 14, 1959 2,901,961 Cotts Sept. 1, 1959 

